Just Tonight
by Kanoe Nanashichi
Summary: AU. Normal girls would be glad if their husbands got along with their friends. Elizaveta was no normal girl, Gilbert was no normal friend. PruxAusxHun songfic. Warning labels all over. Violence, language, betrayal, infanticide, sex and drugging.


Her head was spinning, she could barely tell the ceiling from the floor anymore. It didn't matter much though, in her determination there was only one thing in her mind, and that was the sloppy drunk German laid out on the hotel room bed. She knew this person all too well, which had been a blessing right up till the point that she'd decided to leave him, for another. She knew he wanted her, and his embarrassing inability to conceal that had been just perfect, in this case at least.

As she gently slipped out of her shirt, she started recalling the past she'd shared with Gilbert. It had been a free one, a period of time in which she could have been herself. A period of honesty, and one of naivety. Those memories, those beautiful recollections of an innocent era long gone.

She despised them with all her being.

She near collapsed on the bed next to Gilbert, as he muttered weakly. She barely understood, and might have been able to comprehend him better had her head not been spinning at mach 1, but with her limited knowledge of German, she only managed to make out "Don't do this, Liz, please, no..."

She promptly shut him up with a violent bite to his lower lip. Once she felt his resistance melting, and the sensation of him returning the rough kiss, she smirked, satisfied, and reached down to unbutton his jeans, long brown hair stroking his pale chest.

"Don't struggle Gil... I know you've wanted this, all along... All along..."

When she opened her eyes, nothing remained in her mind. She couldn't remember anything, but at the same time had a clear idea of what had just happened. As she sat up against the backrest, bothering too little to pull the covers up to cover her naked chest, light poured in from the curtained window just out of her reach, caressing his genetically bleached skin.

She'd woken up that morning with Gilbert's arms around her, protective, warm, and ever so piercingly painful.

It might have been the overdose she took, there was an infernal throbbing in her head as she squirmed her way out of her friend... Well, ex-friend's arms, and ended up sitting in the position she'd remained in for well over an hour. Thinking, contemplating, pondering, wondering.

She didn't know what she was waiting for, she didn't know why she remained there, but there she was, patient, and maybe soaking up the satisfying afterglow of her success.

Some part of her was scared, sure. There was no denying it, a little part of her kept consistantly pawing at her conscience. Another, greater portion though denied this in cold blood, and simply settled on assuring her that all was well, she'd done what she aimed to, and that was that.

No need to stay here waiting. He'd know.

With that thought in mind, she gathered her carefully folded clothes off the bedside table, and proceeded dress herself before going back home to her husband.

Here we are and I can't think from all the pills I ate

Start the car and take me home

Here we are and you're too drunk to hear a word I say

Start the car and take me home

Roderich didn't ask where she'd been the previous night, which was to be expected. She had mentioned going out, but he hadn't asked anything further than that, which was also to be expected. After all, he didn't care like he used to anymore, she wasn't the same to him anymore. During the long time she'd managed to keep them together, it was getting obvious that he was getting... Dare she say it, bored.

No matter how much she gave, it didn't seem like enough. He never showed a thing, and she knew only too well the reason why.

Fists clenched and lips stubbornly pursed, she proceeded to the kitchen to prepare lunch.

It wasn't that he was deliberately ignoring her. She knew that much, they'd been married for long enough to understand each other and know when to give their spouse some personal space and time. But that was probably part of the reason why, despite him trying to maintain a sincere facade, she could still read the fact that something was wrong. Something had changed, and she didn't like it.

Lunch was quiet, and after the satisfying meal they both settled on the porch facing the garden. Silence ensued.

She watched him, ever silently, as his eyelids began to droop, she gave a little smile. "Roddy, are you alright?"

Roderich flinched, looking like a child caught for nodding off in class. He pushed his glasses further back up the bridge of his nose, and turned to her with a rather fatigued looking smile, gentle as the sunshine. "I'm fine Elizaveta."

A gentle arc in her lips, she moved closer to the drowsy man and pat the top of her shoulder. "You want to rest a bit, darling? Maybe it's getting a little warm." His eyes seemed blank, and with his mind in a blur, he nodded, before leaning on his wife's shoulder, and, content, closed his eyes, drifting off into slumber.

Still smiling, she stroked his perfectly groomed brown hair, leaning down to place a chaste kiss on his forehead. The sleeping pills had kicked in sooner than she'd expected.

When Roderich woke up again, there was a pleasant smell of roses in the air, and warm candle light glowing from various corners in the room. Well, their bedroom to be exact. He wasn't at the least surprised when he turned to a side, and saw his wife in her usual sleeping gown, laid next to him gently stroking his hair, eyes lidded affectionately.

Even without his glasses on, he knew it was her. The only one he'd truly loved. The life they shared at that moment, to him, was perfect. It was a period of trust, when he could have been out all day and she wouldn't have asked a word, instead preferring to give him a soft kiss and a whispered "welcome home". He also knew that he could do the same for her... Even though he was worried, he didn't say a thing, and from the way things were developing, it didn't seem like he had any reason to worry either.

She loved him, he knew, and he was repaying that love by giving her the one thing he'd never been able to give anyone else prior to the moment they exchanged rings.

He gave her his absolute trust.

He smiled up at her, head still comfortably rested in her lap as she smoothed immaculate fingers over his neck, and said nothing when she leaned down to adhere her lips to his own.

"I love you darling." He whispered with a smile.

The moment those words fell on Elizaveta's ears, she felt as if something inside her just... Died. She was thankful he wasn't wearing his glasses, or he'd have caught the smidgen of guilt that flashed across her face. "... I love you too, Roddy." She replied, gently lowering her slender body on top of his, gladly accepting the kiss he offered.

Just tonight I will stay

And we'll throw it all away

When the light hits your eyes

It's telling me I'm right

And if I, I am through

And it's all because of you

Just tonight

It was a long time, around eight months after that dreadful night that Gilbert allowed himself within a substantial distance of the household his best friend lived in. He had no idea what happened, but from the way he woke up in a hotel room alone, and the empty side of the bed smelled like her favorite shampoo, it must have been her.

But, the question still begged. Why?

His recollection of that night was clear as mud, the fact that eight long months of avoiding the person in question didn't serve his case very much. Everything that night had seemed perfect up till the point that he started feeling unnaturally drunk, while she was still more or less sober. As she started getting intoxicated though, the way she spoke just started scaring him. From what the German himself could clearly recollect, nothing worth being wary about had happened, but given the large gaps in his memory of events, there was always a chance... He wasn't too sure he really wanted to know.

Part of his wariness, and months of deliberate separation from the couple, was largely due to the fact that, he knew this savage woman all too well. When determined, there was almost no boundaries to the atrocities she would have committed. He knew all too well, having watched her disembowel live and kicking prisoners of war, lopping people's heads off their necks without as much as a blink, and wiping out entire towns, villages, cities, under the iron hooves of her cavalry. Often he told himself that, it was all in the past, there wasn't anything since she'd gotten married that suggested she would ever go back to the war hardened beast that was Hungary.

He hated to admit it, but Roderich had done something he never did, nor could have. Taming the beast.

For the longest time he'd hated the prissy fake-German, there was all the reason in the world to. He was nothing like her, and yet he was the only one who got her full attention. It had been obvious enough from the beginning that he'd lost his best friend to the well behaved music geek when, while talking to him, she stopped mid sentence just to watch him walk by, calmly. That gaze she'd set on him, Gilbert had envied it so, so potently.

It was the gaze he'd always wanted from her, but never got.

Roderich wasn't stupid either, he knew that the albino hated him with every single fibre in his pale-skinned body. It was, frankly, true though, and Gilbert wasn't entirely subtle with these things.

Which, he figured, was probably why Elizaveta was the first one to notice when his hatred turned into a macabre infatuation.

It was only when Elizaveta appeared in front of a window that he realized he'd been hanging around their front yard thinking to himself, and he immediately ducked behind a hedge to stay out of sight. When he looked back though, he almost swallowed his tongue. Gilbert knew shit about human anatomy and how an eight month pregnancy would have looked, but there was no denying that she was at least expecting.

She disappeared again after drawing the blinds on the window, and all he could see from then on was a blurred shadow heading back into the depths of the household.

Here I am and I can't seem to see straight

But I'm too numb to feel right now

Here I am watching the clock that's ticking away my time

I'm too numb to feel right now

That night back in the safety of his own home, Gilbert tried to be rational with himself, after all, there was always a possibility that it could have been Roderich's right? Just because that weird incident had happened about the right time ago didn't instantly mean... Yes, true, the mental evidence Gilbert had managed to piece together on his own was heavily damning. But for this once, he didn't allow himself to jump to conclusions. Simply because those were some severely fucked up conclusions.

Just as he was telling himself that, his cellphone started ringing, and it was a ringtone he both missed, and dreaded with all his being.

Psycho Bitch, by Lesley Roy. A song he'd laughingly set for Elizaveta long before all the shit had hit the fans.

He almost felt like throwing the cellphone out of the window and onto the street, but, morbidly intrigued, he picked up the gadget, and answered with a stuttering voice and shaking hands. Who knew? Maybe it could have been a call to relieve him of all his wild guesses and incredulous ideas. Maybe she was just calling to ask why he hadn't been over to their place in more than half a hear, maybe it had just all been a weird dream, and he was just being paranoid about nothing...

"Hallo?"

"Hello Gilbert." From that voice of hers, what he'd hoped for suddenly didn't seem likely anymore.

"What do you want." He grunted, hoping he didn't sound as nervous, or maybe petrified, as he really was.

"You're right, It's yours Gilbert."

The sound of car alarms and angry shouting rang into Gilbert's ears through a shattered window, while his cellphone lay on the far side of the street, broken in half through the middle and decimated further still from impact with the sidewalk.

Elizaveta hung up the phone. From the noises she'd heard, she supposed soon enough she'd be getting an announcement of Gilbert's new cellphone number during a world conference or the likes. Regardless, she knew it was true. It was Gilbert's flesh and blood, that much was obvious. After all, the romantic night she'd spent in the bedroom with Roderich straight after was just a stupid little cover-up to keep the wool over her husband's eyes. With the sheer number of times she'd been ejaculated into by her ex best friend in his drunken stupor, it would have been nothing short of a miracle if nothing happened.

All things were falling nicely into place. Despite the war between her almost non-existent conscience, and the sheer will to achieve what she'd set her mind into doing, her face didn't display anything. She'd learned much earlier on to hide what she truly felt, especially from Roderich. If she still wanted him by her side, she knew, all too well, that her true side had to remain hidden.

Everything was going perfectly, and she wasn't going to let something as trivial as that disrupt the perfection that was her plan.

Just tonight I will stay

And we'll throw it all away

When the light hits your eyes

It's telling me I'm right

And if I, I am through

And it's all because of you

Just tonight

Just tonight

Roderich stepped silently across the living room, approaching his wife, who was calmly setting the phone back down into its stand. He sat down next to her, placing a soft kiss on her head as she smiled and looked away shyly.

"Who were you talking to, darling?"

"Oh, just Gilbert. I haven't seen him around much lately." She felt a little scared of herself, at that very moment. Mainly because she couldn't tell if the smile on her face was for show, to keep up her facade, or genuine, due to the fact that ever since she'd started showing signs of bearing a child, Roderich seemed to care and fuss about her a lot more than he used to. There was the affection, the slight sense of possessiveness, heck, at times she might even have thought he was being clingy.

All of which, she enjoyed to no end, and she made well sure he knew it.

It was just the perfect family scenario she'd always dreamed of, barring the fact that the infant she carried was in fact conceived by another man.

Ah, but that very moment was another opportunity for her to covertly ask for Roderich's attention to be lavished over her.

"Roddy, I'd like to go meet up with Gilbert sometime again soon..." She whispered, leaning into his shoulder, breathing eerily calm as she felt his arms ringing around her body. "Just to catch up, have a little chat."

"Are you sure you should be walking around like this? Or should I go with you?" She giggled. Roderich was so beautiful, so beautifully naive. But she loved that part of him, she loved it to pieces. He hadn't suspected a thing, and instead stayed wallowing in the joy of his imminent status as a father. She could have almost completely convinced herself that his little crush on Gilbert had disappeared completely.

She wasn't stupid, borderline insane, or just insane, maybe. Stupid though? Anything but.

It had confused her for quite some time though, what was it really that Roderich wanted. She'd reformed herself just to suit the image he seemed to prefer, and yet... There was this constant interest from his part, on Gilbert. Who was just a spitting image of the little tomboy she used to be. It had confused her for years, till she found out the immediate meaning of losing his attention.

It simply meant he didn't love her anymore, and his attention had transferred to someone else more interesting, more troublesome, more pompous and utterly unbelievable.

"No, it's alright Roddy... I want to go talk to him, alone."

Stop me, don't let me go. Keep me here, house-arrest me if you must... I... I'm scared of keeping this up, I'm scared of myself Roddy, please... Stop me.

"Alright darling. Be careful." He eventually sighed, and gave her a tender kiss on her cheek while she giggled her thanks.

Do you understand who I am?

Do you wanna know?

Can you really see through me now?

I have got to go

When she stepped out of her car, heels click-clacking onto the pavement outside Gilbert's house, she made a momentary glance at his window.

It was broken, just as she'd expected from the sound of shattering glass she heard just before the call was cut off. Calmly she locked her car, gathered her wits about her, and made her way up to the front door, knocking as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Go the hell away you fucking mental." Was all she heard before a violent repercussion shook the wooden door, mere inches away from her face.

"Aren't you at all worried what might happen to your child if you leave me out here?"

His first reaction was to loudly display all the fucks he gave, until he thought about it for a few more seconds... And realized, he did care, a lot. Wrong, morbid, psychotic, mental as it all seemed, he did care. There was a sick and selfish part of him dwelling on the fact that even though Roderich had won the numerous battles, now there was no two ways around the fact that he'd won the war.

He eventually opened the door, leaning lazily on the doorpost, towering over the seemingly frail woman. It was scary how even to him, who was well versed with her true form, she still seemed so fragile and appropriate with the gentle smile on her face and loose floral dress hugging her chest.

"The fuck do you want, woman." He growled, before mentally retracting from the glare she gave him.

"We need to talk Gilbert, for your own good."

My own good. He huffed. My good, since when did she give a flying fuck about what was good for me.

Regardless, he stepped aside and allowed her into his abode, making sure he kept a generous distance between them. He jumped, momentarily distracted, when she spoke up all of a sudden, demanding his attention despite the calm tone of her voice.

"You already know who the father is don't you. I hope I wasn't being too subtle last night." Gilbert made a glance at the broken window with a cellphone sized hole through it, and nodded, stuffing hs hands into his pockets before leaning on a convenient wall.

"Does he know."

"No. And I've come here to warn you not to tell him."

That was it. His chance to claw back something at least. He needed to, it wasn't just ego and dignity, he needed to claw some of it back to stay on his own two feet. Fuck knows he'd been betrayed by both people he'd loved dearly, intentional or not, they'd both left him jaded and beyond. He'd be damned if he took their blows lying down and doing nothing about it like a puddle of road kill.

He had to, even if it meant resorting to something like blackmail.

"He doesn't know hmm." He repeated, trying to bring up his case. She loved him enough to keep him in his perfect crystal palace, her love for him would be her downfall. She wouldn't have let anything happen to him, that was the key to his imminent success, and yet... The more he thought about it, the less he wanted to.

Roderich had won the war after all.

That wasn't it though, it wasn't what she'd come here to talk about. Even though his mind was telling him he held the advantage, he held the lever, the upper hand... The whole atmosphere in the room just felt off. He wasn't winning yet, he was far from it. But there was just no way, every bit of logic in him pointed to the fact that she didn't want Roderich to know, and that was something he could have easily collected into his convenient disposal. There was no fallacy here, it was all clockwork.

His only fallacy was simply, her.

"If you tell him, my dear... I can't guarantee the child will live."

He could have sworn he physically felt his pupils retracting.

Within the blink of an eye he was afore her, long slender fingers grasping her shoulders violently, nails digging into her flesh as he shook her back and forth like a rag doll. "Liz, wake the fuck up, do you have any idea what the bloody hell you're talking about? What about Roderich? He thinks it's his Liz, that prissy retard thinks this bastard belongs to him! It's infanticide Liz, you need me to spell that the fuck out for you? Cause I think I just did! Are you out of your fucking mind! Wake up Liz, wake... Up..."

He crumpled to the ground where she stood, blood stained hands sliding down from her bleeding shoulders to grasp her hands.

"Liz... Don't do this, please."

He wanted the child to live, morally, emotionally... He wanted there to be something he could remember happened between himself and the woman he knew he would never have, but at the same time, there was another reason...

The one who didn't want to see Roderich being pushed out of his crystal palace wasn't his wife Elizaveta. It was him.

Just tonight I won't leave

And I'll lie and you'll believe

Just tonight I will see

It's all because of me

Roderich didn't have a good rest the night before, something, he didn't quite know what exactly, was bothering him, deeply, persistently... Disturbingly. Somehow, the fact that his wife was going to visit Gilbert just didn't sit very well with him. Sure it might have been envy, he'd always known that Elizaveta was hiding a lot of her true self from him, the true self she'd only reveal when in company of the grinning albino that was her best friend.

The lively, rough around the edges side of her that she deliberately hid from him. Oblivious to the fact that he wished to see more of her true self.

He never denied being ever so jealous about that. Sure, jealousy was a rather harsh word to use, but he did feel that tugging feeling in his gut whenever she mentioned his name with such a carefree smile on her face.

Selfish as he did admit it was, he actually felt quite glad about the long period of time during which Elizaveta had seemed to drop out of contact with Gilbert . She stayed at home much more, she would pay so much more attention to him, and in turn seemed ever so much more eager to have his attention. To him it felt more than ever that they truly were a married couple. For the longest time she barely even mentioned his name, and when they talked, he could almost feel that she was focused, instead of her eyes darting around the house looking for chores to be done.

Then, during this critical period in her pregnancy she promptly declared she was going to visit him. He might have taken it a little better if she hadn't insisted on going alone. To his home.

The unsettling feeling that was nagging in his mind eventually prompted him to ditch his meeting, and instead drive down to where memory told him Gilbert lived and where his wife ought to have been. The first thing he noticed though, aside from the car he recognized as Elizaveta's parked not too far away, was the broken window on the face of a house that he remembered belonged to Gilbert. Hardly reassuring.

"... You need me to spell that the fuck out for you? Cause I think I just did! Are you out of your fucking mind!"

The moment he heard elevated voices, Roderich's hesitation was abandoned on the sidewalk, and he sprinted through the gateway, bursting through the, thankfully, unlocked front door.

What came into view was confusing to say the least. He didn't really know who to blame. Sure, Elizaveta was the one bleeding at the shoulders with her hair disheveled, but looking at Gilbert, crumpled to his knees at her feet, Roderich couldn't help but feel Elizaveta must have been to blame, at least to some extent, for something.

He knew something was going on here, and it was unsettling. He'd thought the premonitions he'd been getting might have been his own inflated paranoia, but it seemed that he was far off. They were just the tip of the iceberg.

"What's going on."

"Roddy? What are you doing here?" She stuttered, face going paler than he thought was humanly possible.

"Elizaveta, I need an explanation." Despite concern for his wife, his voice was stern, and the stare he gave her was hardly soothing. She bit her lips, knowing all too well what the expression on his face meant, despite not having seen it many times before. He was hurt, deeply, she didn't know over what or why yet though, he ought to have been in his little ignorant bubble of innocent security, void of all harm and danger...

But to her, it just seemed like he knew exactly what was going on.

She stumbled back with a shriek when Gilbert rose to his feet.

"Roderich... This is between Liz and I. Get the hell out." Despite the glare through ruby eyes that seemed as if they could have killed him then and there, Roderich held his ground.

"She's my wife Gilbert, you have no authority to tell me that."

"Would you just listen to yourself Rod? If only you knew how bloody naive you're being you ignorant fuck." He lunged forward and grabbed his collar, but what surprised him was the fact that, despite what he'd expected, Roderich wasn't a cowering shivering wreck begging for mercy. He didn't even flinch, hell, he didn't even blink, and simply whacked the hand on his collar away.

"Fine, I don't know what's going on, but that doesn't mean you two ought to be keeping it from me."

Gilbert couldn't remember the last time Roderich spoke up to him like this. Hell, even Elizaveta didn't remember anything like that happening before either. All the more it made them realize that shit was about to hit the fans. Elizaveta stared at Gilbert with vengeance the moment a cynical grin crawled up on his crooked lips.

"Gilbert, shut, up." Her voice was laced with acid.

Roderich stared at his wife, leaning against the backrest of a sofa for support, as the look in Gilbert's eyes started making him, dare he say it, afraid. Afraid of the imminent information that was about to be unleashed, afraid of the tension in the air that was dense enough to cut with a knife, afraid of the unknown consequences, afraid of the innocent, easy life he knew he'd be giving up.

It all began with one of the German's signature grins. "Rod, you idiot." He began, but before another word could have been spoken, Elizaveta made a move for the kitchen.

Immediately sensing what this was all about, Gilbert followed her in a sprint, but was too late.

The next thing Roderich saw was Gilbert slowly backing out from the kitchen at knife-point, Elizaveta too stepping out back into full view, a savage look in her eyes that he recognized.

And, frankly, he was terrified.

"Did you think I wasn't serious Gilbert?" She stammered, shivering violently from either fear or rage, neither of the men could tell exactly which. The blood stains on her shoulder pierced into their eyes... "Don't you say another word Gil, or you know what happens."

Just tonight I will stay

And we'll throw it all away

When the light hits your eyes

It's telling me I'm right

And if I, I am through

And it's all because of you

Just tonight

Why the hell the atmosphere in the room was as tense as it was eluded Roderich, but every hair on his body stood on end as he read the primitive glint in Elizaveta's eyes. He hadn't seen her like that for centuries, and to be honest, he was rather glad. Now it was back, and despite everything, all the time they'd spent together, it felt almost as if this was a completely different person standing afore him.

He was confused, and he'd come for answers. It seemed as if though, all he'd gotten himself was more problems to worry about.

"Gilbert, what is going on." Every syllable was firm and decisive. He didn't care about anything anymore, he needed to know, and he wasn't going to go on with his life allowing other people to make those decisions for him or not. If he couldn't handle the truth, fine, he'd take the consequences, but he needed to know at least. "Gilbert, tell me. What the hell is this all about."

"Gilbert, don't!" She shrieked, before reversing the blade, and gripping it towards herself. Nails digging into her own palms released a trickle of crimson onto the floor, and Roderich flinched, backing off from the Prussian.

"... Rod, doesn't it seem odd to you?" He whispered, chuckling to himself as if he'd completely lost it. Elizaveta glared at him with a stare that must have been intense enough to physically sting. Regardless, he continued, and Roderich was immensely puzzled as he heard the pitter patter of teardrops on the floor. When Gilbert looked up again, the Austrian saw his eyes in a shade of red beyond their natural color. "Why would she be using your precious baby to threaten me. Why do you think that is Rod?"

Her shivering intensified as Roderich turned back to her, his stare accusing and incredulous. In a whiplash movement though he turned back to Gilbert.

"Now it all makes sense doesn't it." He cackled, cynical stare overridden by tears and violent choking.

She flinched and stepped back the moment Roderich turned to her, eyes questioning. For a brief moment, he caught her looking like a deer caught in headlights, but after an all too brief moment, that look disappeared, and in its stead, one of fierce and frightening intensity.

"He's right Roderich." She eventually hissed. "The child I'm carrying is his."

"Why Elizaveta, why." They were shocked and momentarily distracted when Gilbert hacked up another loudly incredulous laugh.

"Rod you're such an imbecile!" He laughed, lashing his arms around in the air. "It's cause I loved you, you thick retard, she couldn't take it, and I don't know what the fuck was wrong with you. You had her, man, what I wouldn't give to have this crazy bitch do for me even a single percent of what she did for you? Why weren't you happy enough with that? You're both sick you know that? Sick, sick fucks."

"Gilbert shut up!" She screamed, releasing her grip on the blade to cover her ears. As the blood on her fingers grimed her disheveled hair, Roderich took a step closer, unsure of what he was going to do. "It's all your fault Roddy, what didn't I give you? What haven't I given you already? Why did you have to forget everything I've done for you and... And..." She crumpled to the floor, hands still limply over her ears as she sobbed uncontrollably.

Gilbert, laughing still, leaned against a nearby wall, staring up at the ceiling.

Despite everyone else in the room, Roderich felt alone, so so isolated. His bubble of ignorance had been popped... There was little comfort in telling himself that he'd chosen to step out of his safety zone. When her hands plopped weakly to her sides, he could still see droplets of tears landing into her bloodied lap. The background noise of Gilbert muttering "what the bloody fuck" over and over didn't deter him as he stepped over to his wife.

"Darling."

"Don't talk to me Roddy." She whispered between mute sobs.

"Darling..." He whispered, before reaching out a hand to smooth her hair out of her face. She didn't flinch, it seemed as if he was dealing with a corpse. He gently picked up her right hand, and on it, a glint of silver caught his eye beyond the crimson shock of blood. He still didn't know the full story, but there was little need to. They'd all been wounded, even though the only one bleeding, was her. Ignoring the knife, he pulled her closer to him, kissing her ear as he whispered. "You're wrong my love... There never was another... I've loved you and only you all along."

Elizaveta choked back tears that eventually escaped, falling into Roderich's shoulder. She'd been calculating everything, every little detail, wondering about the slightest anomaly and drowning in paranoia... And there he was, assuring her that she'd been wrong all this time. No number of her calculation and plots could have racked up against his simple concept of loyalty.

"I'm sorry Roddy... So so sorry..."

"Be sorry to Gilbert my love..." He whispered, before placing a lingering kiss on the top of her head, and turning towards the on-looking, raggedly speechless German.

She stared, numbly, as Roderich stood and made his way to Gilbert, who simply looked away trying his best to seem as if he didn't need any of this.

She couldn't hear a word they were saying, she didn't need to. It was only after all this time that she'd allowed herself to trust him fully. Ironically, the very incident that had proven her betrayal, was the pinnacle of him showing his loyalty. Roderich had proven himself, his love for her... It was her turn.

Both men turned in shock when they heard a shrill cry, followed by the dull thud of her crumpling to the ground behind them. An ever increasing pool of blood stemming from her abdomen was only too clear an indication of what she'd just done.

"Elizaveta!"

"Liz!"

(Do you understand who I am?)

It's all because of you

Just tonight

(Do you understand who I am?)

It's all because of you

Just tonight

"Are you Mr Edelstein?"

"Yes that's me." He stuttered, standing immediately from the bench and heading towards the doctor who called his name.

"I have unfortunate news for you sir." He said, voice calm from his profession. But Roderich swallowed, before nodding for him to go on. "Although we have controlled your wife's situation, we were not able to save your daughter."

So it would have been a girl, he thought to himself silently, as he sunk back onto the bench, hands over his eyes.

Gilbert was in a separate department of the hospital undergoing therapy for PTSD, and Elizaveta had been sent into intensive care. The doctor laid a firm hand on Roderich's shoulder, giving him a slight pat.

"I'm sorry sir."

He nodded the doctor away, and stepped into the ward where nurses were just about to take the underdeveloped corpse of... Well, Gilbert's child away.

With that pessimistic thought in mind, he lowered his head in favor of heading over to his wife and making sure she was going to be alright. He stopped in his tracks though, as he caught a glimpse of the small dead body.

Her thin baby hair was a rich dark brown.

(Do you understand who I am?)

It's all because of you

Just tonight


End file.
